In praise of Windows 8.1 (!)

prowla

Well, I've actually found a couple of items in Windows 8.1 which are improvements over 8, and it has a feature which is really useful!!!

1. The boot to desktop saves having to click to go there when you startup. You still have to go to the ghastly Start page, from time to time, but at least you get to skip it when you start up.
2. Right-clicking the Start Page icon on the desktop taskbar pulls up a menu of admin-type activities including running control panel, task manager, file explorer, and shutting down. You may never need the silly charm bar from the right anymore.
3. The really good thing for me is the BitLocker drive encryption, which means that you can protect your files. It doesn't seem to impact performance greatly for office/email/internet use, and even works on systems without TPM (eg. in a VM). Of course, only time will tell how stable it is, but fingers crossed.

Sadly they haven't seen fit to reverse their stupid decision to go flat and square, but I'm trying out WindowBlinds, which reinstates the Aero Glass transparency features and rounded window corners; I might even pay the $9.99 to license it after the 30-day trial.


It's still got annoyances, and needs more work til it's as good as Windows 7 though.

bod1467

prowla wrote: »

and needs more work til it's as good as Windows 7 though.

I can't think of any better back-handed compliment.

Jivesinger

prowla wrote: »

Well, I've actually found a couple of items in Windows 8.1 which are improvements over 8, and it has a feature which is really useful!!!

1. The really good thing for me is the BitLocker drive encryption, which means that you can protect your files. It doesn't seem to impact performance greatly for office/email/internet use, and even works on systems without TPM (eg. in a VM). Of course, only time will tell how stable it is, but fingers crossed.

I like Bitlocker, but I didn't think Windows 8.1 was much different to 8 in that respect, in that Windows 8 Pro and 8.1 Pro both have Bitlocker, but the lesser versions don't?

There is an 8.1 feature called "pervasive device encryption" which is available in all editions of Windows 8.1, and I think is along the same lines and based on Bitlocker technology, but my understanding was it was only enabled on the latest hardware? (Hardware has to meet Microsoft's "InstantGo" spec or something like that.)

Are you running on a new computer?

prowla

Jivesinger wrote: »

I like Bitlocker, but I didn't think Windows 8.1 was much different to 8 in that respect, in that Windows 8 Pro and 8.1 Pro both have Bitlocker, but the lesser versions don't?

There is an 8.1 feature called "pervasive device encryption" which is available in all editions of Windows 8.1, and I think is along the same lines and based on Bitlocker technology, but my understanding was it was only enabled on the latest hardware? (Hardware has to meet Microsoft's "InstantGo" spec or something like that.)

Are you running on a new computer?

Actually I never tried it on 8, so it may have been there but I didn't use it.

It's running inside a VM.